* Didn’t make many changes to the Sept. 23 ballot, in part because of a bevy of byes: Four of my top-10 teams and six of my top 20 were idle.

(That doesn’t rule out changes involving those teams — and one of the idle teams dropped significantly — but it limits the re-configuring.)

* What’s more, only three teams on the Sept. 23 ballot lost, and two lost close games to ranked teams (Michigan State to Ohio State and Tennessee to Georgia).

* In general: I feel good about Alabama as No. 1 but couldn’t identify an obvious No. 2. I ended up with Oregon in that slot (again) despite its soft schedule.

* The Pac-12 provided the bulk of the big movers:

Oregon State climbed six spots, to No. 10, after their win at Arizona.

The Beavers, for those unfamiliar with their resume, have also beaten Wisconsin (home) and UCLA (road).

I don’t all that much stock in the Wisconsin win at this point, although the Badgers played well at Nebraska on Saturday. But OSU has two road victories over quality teams in what’s quite possibly the second-best conference in the country.

That was a fairly easy call. What wasn’t so easy was how to treat USC and Washington.

The Trojans were No. 10 on my ballot and didn’t play, but I couldn’t justify leaving them ahead of Stanford because of the head-to-head result of Sept. 15; they tumbled along with the Cardinal. (Maybe neither team is anything special.)

I thought long and hard about ranking the Huskies but ended up leaving them off the ballot, largely because of their 41-3 loss to LSU (on the same field that Towson just lost by 16).

Head-to-head results are important, but they aren’t everything. We’re five weeks into the season and the entire resume must be considered:

UW has a close win at home over Stanford, a brutal loss at LSU and an unimpressive home win over substandard San Diego State.

That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Huskies are ranked when the AP poll is released. Other voters, if so inclined, could make a case for including UW.

Jon Wilner

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Jon,
Thank you for not being one of the idiots and ranking West Virginia in the top 5. While Geno is truly Legit, the WV defense is Le Fraud. Name one team this weekend, besides Baylor, that looses this weekend after scoring 63 points…. ….
I’m waiting.

alchemist

This needs to be said: Anyone who ranks Boise State is voting for last year’s team and not this year’s. They look terrible. The Michigan State loss (which keeps looking worse) was not as close as the score and they just beat New Mexico by three in a game where their defense was worn down and unable to stop the option attack. That’s a week after a 7-6 victory over BYU in a game that made the first half of UDub/Furd look flashy and exciting. Boise should not be ranked at all.

Scott

Texas at 22, pass me some of what your smoking. Glad your vote and this poll don’t count for anything

Dan Tana

you are the exact reason nobody really sees the AP poll as a relevant judge of football.

Mjohnsonesq

I would love to hear how Texas dropped a spot after winning on the road against Oklahoma State. Let’s start there, then we will get to the question of why you have them 7 spots below every other AP voter and behind Ohio State, 2-loss Michigan, 2-loss Michigan State, UCLA and Nebraska (among others).

jubelale

i’ll go so far as to add that Michigan State and Michigan should not be ranked in the top 20, let alone in the top 25 (in Michigan’s case) if Washington isn’t going to be ranked due to consideration of its first game this season…and trust me, i’m no husky fan

ccrider55

How is OSU deserving of #10? Three very close wins? A top 25, yes. Maybe top 20 but the resume, and season, needs more games to show those wins are actually high enough quality to jump a 3-9 non-king team into top 10 after three games.

texashaterforlife

So Jon,
Serious Question: When might you start ranking SJSU? They have a close loss to Stanford (Closer than USC was) and are on a winning streak. If they are still on a winning streak after Utah State in two weeks, would you consider them in your top 25? Would they need to be 8-1 or 9-1 to be considered. If Falas is the best QB on a Bay Area team what else do the Spartans have to do for some exposure? I know Stanford is the strongest opponent on their schedule so do the Spartans have to rely solely on Stanford’s SOS?

alchemist

ccrider:

You’re easily a top 15 team. You beat Wisconsin by way more than the score indicates despite not having a tune-up game to work the bugs out, you beat a very good UCLA team in LA and you showed you can get behind against another talented team, recapture momentum and win on the road last night. Right now it looks like Alabama, Oregon and then a whole lot of “Got to rank someone here,” behind them and OSU has done as much as anyone right now. Who do you see ranked below you that you don’t think you could beat on a neutral field?

ccrider55

Alchemist:

I don’t know. That’s my point, not enough data to have an informed opinion. This is why I prefer computer evaluations after mid-season that discard any human ranking. Human polls can be overly influenced by worthless early season polls.

GreatWhiteHorse

Maybe Texas has a lot to prove still, but they’ve gone on the road and beaten two pretty decent teams and yet you have them behind a two-loss Michigan team and several one-loss teams. I don’t understand.

rotfogel

Arizona St is one of the top 25 teams in the country. Not many defensive lineman in college football as good as Will Sutton, none better.

Trojan4Ever

What!!! You dropped USC 10 spots when they didn’t even play??? How much will they move up if they beat Utah?

CoastalMike

I hope that David Shaw has lost some of his arrogance along with his top ten ranking. Not a bad team but not much more than a .500 one either. Not that it is all Nunes fault, not at all, but I wonder if SU has ever had the worst QB in the Pac-X.

billybob

I bet Cal would be ranked at, or at the lowest, top 3………of the “coaches likely to be fired” poll.

USC Maddog

Oh Pleeeeese!
How can you ever rank UCLA above USC…it just doesn’t compute!
If you have to rank Stanford above USC because of the head to head, then you have to rank Washington above Stanford for the same reason?
In my opinion Oregon State is a very good team, but not top 10, maybe around 15 and I do think Washington belongs in the top 25, and that gives the Pac 12 six teams in the top 25.
Fight On!

alchemist

USC Maddog:

Ranking UCLA above USC is totally defensible. Let me explain it to you this way.

USC is 3-1 right now. The three teams they’ve beaten are Hawaii, Syracuse and Cal. Total FBS wins by Hawaii, Syracuse and Cal: 0. SC’s loss came to a Stanford team that let San Jose State hang around at home and who lost to a mediocre-at-best Washington team who itself barely beat San Diego State and who let LSU have their way with them. So Washington’s not that good but they managed to beat Stanford who also isn’t that good but did manage to beat USC who hasn’t beaten anybody. Meanwhile UCLA beat Nebraska, they lost by a touchdown to a very good Oregon State team despite the loss of both guards, and absolutely pasted the three bad teams they played (all of whom have at least one victory over an FBS team).

And that’s how you rank UCLA above USC.

John

You really are clueless. Texas below multiple Big Ten teams with losses? The Big Ten is horrendous this year, as they were last year. TCU might not have a great win this year but they’re certainly better than Boise St. Biggest joke is Ohio St. NOT worthy of #11 as you aren’t worthy of voting in a poll. Good thing it’s a meaningless one BCS-wise

Kerr

Meanwhile UCLA beat Nebraska, they lost by a touchdown to a very good Oregon State team despite the loss of both guards, and absolutely pasted the three bad teams they played (all of whom have at least one victory over an FBS team).

Slow down on bragging about UCLA’s opponent wins. Each of those three has EXACTLY one win. CU won at WSU, Rice won at Kansas and UH beat Rice (after both played UCLA). The OSU loss was HOME game so UCLA doesn’t earn any special credit. If you want to go the injury excuse route, you have to open that up to every school.

alchemist

Kerr:

I’ve got no dog in the UCLA/USC fight, I’m just calling it like I see it and what I’ve seen is UCLA look pretty good every time I’ve seen them play (which includes against Nebraska, Houston, Oregon State and Colorado) whereas USC looked great against Hawaii, lackluster against Syracuse, bad against Stanford and sluggish again against Cal. Hundley didn’t have a great game against Oregon State but Barkley hasn’t had a great one since Hawaii. UCLA has the more impressive resume and passes the eye test better than SC does right now. SC is the better team on paper so if they go out and crush Utah on Thursday I might reevaluate but for right now I think the order is correct.

Cd

Michigan? What are you smoking?

Bixby23

@texashaterforlife

Not to answer for JW, but I don’t see how beating Utah St. (even were they to knock off BYU this coming Sat.) could even get SJSU consideration here. I say this as a diehard Spartan fan: the only way SJSU might break into the top 25 is to win out, and even then, Stanford, Utah St., BYU, and Louisiana Tech must continue to play well (using “continue” in Stanford’s and BYU’s case with a biggish grain of salt). Overall, the SOS just isn’t there, I think, for SJSU to do it any other way.

The good news is, they will. Bank on it.

Kerr

I’ve got no dog in the UCLA/USC fight, I’m just calling it like I see it and what I’ve seen is UCLA look pretty good every time I’ve seen them play (which includes against Nebraska, Houston, Oregon State and Colorado) whereas USC looked great against Hawaii, lackluster against Syracuse, bad against Stanford and sluggish again against Cal. … UCLA has the more impressive resume and passes the eye test better than SC does right now.

Fair enough. But how much of the impression is due to UCLA’s perceived improvement from being a horrible team (remember 50-0?) to USC starting from the top?

IMHO, Colorado, Rice and UH (both of them) are bottom 30 teams. Beating them (even decisively) is nothing to brag about. Cal and Syracuse could wind up there, but both have played a fairly challenging schedule to date and seem to have some talent so their true ranking may be in the middle 60 or so teams.

Mjohnsonesq

Again, my question (that appears will go unanswered) is how on earth you DROP Texas one spot after Texas won a conference game on the road against Oklahoma State? You had them 21 last week and 22 this week.

The issue of putting Texas at 22 and below some other 2 loss teams is a separate question. And don’t completely discount the road win against Ole Miss by 35 points. Ole Miss lost at Bama by 19. They sure gave Bama a better fight than Michigan, your 14th(?) ranked team.

USC Maddog

Alchemist,
Can you please think about what you’re saying before you try to say it?
Are you agreeing with Jon in saying that USC is the lowest rated team from the Pac 12 in the Top 25 Teams?
The way I see the Pac rankings right now is;
1. Oregon
2. Oregon State
3. USC
4. Stanford
5. UCLA
6. Washington
I’m not just judging on wins vs. loses, but also on the way the teams are playing now and please don’t mention the head to head matchups because USC lost to Furd, but Stanford lost to Washington which puts them below USC. As far as Top 10 Teams go, I believe Oregon is the only one right now that deserves that honor.
Fight On!

alchemist

USC Maddog:

Apaprently you’re unmoved by dispassionate reason and logic. Color me unsurprised you bought your degree as opposed to earned it. If you based your rankings on how teams are playing right now you clearly are a DirecTV customer because you didn’t watch the Cal game, and my guess is you got drunk, passed out and forgot the whole night of the Furd game as well. Can’t say that I blame you.

alchemist

Mjohnsonesq:

Your question is going to go unanswered because no one cares about Texas.

Gee, Alchemist good use of “dispassionate reason and logic” in your response, there.

USC Maddog

Alchemist,
You’re right, I didn’t watch the Cal game Sat (no, I’m not a Direct TV customer but I didn’t want to waste my time), but I’m watching the replay now and my question to you is Arizona State that good or is Kal really that bad?
Fight On!

exit24off78

I guess you are “west coast bias”…..no Rytgers? What gives. I know the schedule is weak, but still 5-0. Clueless.

K S

How do you rate LSU above Florida who not only beat them but
smothered them. Could it be that they didn’t want to drop LSU
to far in case they want to set up another BCS Alabama-LSU game